Let your Kingdom come - soon, please!

The Allotment

One Tuesday evening in August Bill and Anna invited us to BBQ with them in their allotment. It is the first time I have been on an allotment and I am amazed at how seriously these people take it - some of the properties were really producing fantastic vegetables and flowers. It was like a mini vacation as there wasn't a building in sight, lots of greenery around and the sounds of birds (occasionally interspersed by the noise of aircraft). The bible seems to talk about a 'great reversal', a move away from sin - a move back into the garden of eden - or - paradise. Sin is the rejection of God's plans and authority and Jesus speaks of God as a great gardener, that he will transform our rubble filled allotment into a beautiful garden if we will only let him. We cooked sausages on a stick with the girls and enjoyed the company of great friends. This is good.

In the cafe we have been very busy and a lot of that time I have been serving on the counter due to training, staff holidays etc... It happens around this time of year. I enjoy being on the counter or in the kitchen since it qualifies you as a worker. I know the value of having somebody give their time up for me, and so do our visitors. It was a beautifully warm summer - many days we had tables out on the veranda and sold out our cold drinks, added frappucino's to our product list.

A frappucino is simple to make really, we use 2 shots of fresh arabica bean to cup espresso, add 3 teaspoons of sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then add half a cup of cold milk and about 4 ice cubes and blend. If you put in the sugar last it will not dissolve as it needs the heat.

As for interesting guests we always have some! One chap came in for about 3 days. He said he used to attend church and was really impressed by the café. He seemed as if he would love to come back but just didn't know how. I invited him to join us for a sunday service. He has yet to come. There are also usual visitors who come, some of who as you get to know them have really troubled minds/pasts and they daily return to things of the past, their old mantras, and it is quite sad to see. I have mentioned it before, but a victim mentality is so debilitating. The most disabled of all are those who feel that God has not given them what they deserve. We have someone who comes in who is truly disabled, physically, his mind is even affected, but he doesn't have a victim mentality - he is grateful for each day, and it is great to see how he is embracing change.

Kelson House from 'the beach'

These small, tight housing estates with their cramped living can only result in tensions though, noisy neighbours, noisy children, youth who have no place to go, cultural differences including sleeping patterns, barking dogs, it can wear you down. D_ is having a hard time dealing with the noise and feels it is intentional - an attack, feels it is a way of saying 'it's time you left'. If you are alone on the estates you can feel very threatened - isolated, especially when there are so many families and gangs. The single people don't understand the noise of the family and are too afraid to go and knock on the door to ask for quiet- and sometimes with good reason. The stairwells are often occupied by youth at night, smoking marijuana, drinking, or outside revving their cars with their staffordshire terriers.

I was in St John's park one friday evening with my children - they were playing on the swings etc... A group of really young children were shouting at a woman (Bengali) and her children. They were about 8 or 9 years old and telling her to 'f off to Pakistan you f#ing paki'. Little boys and girls!It was really a terrible situation. The poor woman told me in very broken English that she has it all the time she comes into the park with her two boys (about 5 and 3). These children can only learn what they say from their parents, and it was so saddening to see how much they loved her fear. This is bad. At times like these Heaven feels a long way off.